As a recording material to be used for an ink-jet recording system, there has been known a recording material which comprises a usual paper or a support called to as an ink-jet recording sheet on which a porous ink-absorption layer comprising a pigment such as amorphous silica and a hydrophilic binder such as polyvinyl alcohol and the like.
As a recording material to be used for an ink-jet recording system, there has generally been known a recording material which comprises a swelling type ink-receptive layer comprising a binder that is swelled by a solvent such as water, etc. or a porous ink-receptive layer comprising a pigment such as amorphous silica, etc. and a water-soluble binder such as polyvinyl alcohol, etc., being provided on a support such as a usual paper or the so-called ink-jet recording sheet. In terms of ink-absorption property, the one with a porous ink-receptive layer is more preferred.
There have been proposed recording materials obtained by coating a silicon-containing pigment such as silica, etc., with an aqueous binder onto a paper support as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 51583/1980, No. 157/1981, No. 107879/1982, No. 107880/1982, No. 230787/1984, No. 160277/1987, No. 184879/1987, No. 183382/1987, No. 11877/1989, and the like.
Also, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 56552/1991, Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 188287/1990, No. 132728/1996, No. 81064/1998, No. 119423/1998, No. 175365/1998, No. 203006/1998, No. 217601/1998, No. 20300/1999, No. 20306/1999 and No. 34481/1999, there have been disclosed ink-jet recording materials using synthetic silica fine particles prepared by a gas phase process (hereinafter referred to as “fumed silica”). However, it was difficult to improve both of ink-absorption property and glossiness.
Also, in Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 174183/1987, No. 276670/1990, No. 32037/1993, No. 199034/1994, and the like, there have been disclosed recording materials which use alumina or alumina hydrate. However, they are good in glossiness but ink-absorption property was insufficient.
Also, in Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 86509/1998, there is disclosed an ink-jet recording material which uses an amorphous silica or alumina silicate having a primary particle size of 3 to 40 nm and an average particle size of secondary aggregated particles of 10 to 200 nm, and a Haze degree of the ink-receptive layer is 4 to 65%.
However, when ink-absorption property is improved by using amorphous silica or alumina silicate having an average primary particle diameter of 3 to 40 nm alone, then, printing density or coloring property is lowered so that it was impossible to satisfy both of the above.
Also, it has been proposed to provide a glossiness developing layer as an upper layer in Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 215080/1991, No. 89220/1995, No. 117335/1995, No. 37944/2000 and the like.
In Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 55829/1994, there has been disclosed a recording sheet having been provided a silica porous layer as a lower layer, and a layer containing alumina or alumina hydrate as an upper layer, and also, in Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 89216/1995, there has been proposed a recording material in which a layer containing a water-absorption pigment is provided as a lower layer and a layer into which pseudo boehmite is provided at the outermost layer. However, the pigments to be used in these lower layers are coarse since their average particle sizes are several μm or more, so that sufficient glossiness cannot be obtained. Also, to attain sufficient glossiness, it is necessary to make a coating amount of alumina or alumina hydrate in an upper layer large, and as a result, ink-absorption property is lowered. Thus, it cannot be satisfied sufficiently both of the glossiness and ink-absorption property.
In the prior art, an aqueous dye has been exclusively used as a coloring material to be used for ink for ink-jet recording, but the aqueous dye has a defect that it is inferior in light resistance or water resistance, so that a pigment ink excellent in light resistance, water resistance has been used in recent years. However, in the pigment ink, it is necessary to disperse water-insoluble pigment particles and to maintain the same stably. Also, pigment ink has problems that it is likely lowered in drying property of ink after printing and scuffing resistance as compared with aqueous dyes. Moreover, as compared with the aqueous dyes, the pigment ink is generally inferior in ink-absorption property.
On the other hand, in the above-mentioned ink-jet recording material having a void structure using ultrafine particles such as fumed silica, alumina and alumina hydrate, it has high surface smoothness and high glossiness can be obtained. But on the other hand, the surface strength thereof is relatively weak, and it has a defect that scuffmark due to contact with rollers at the time of production or processing, or damage on the surface thereof when a plural number of sheets are overlapped and printing is carried out by feeding these sheets is likely caused.
An object of the present invention is to provide an ink-jet recording material having high glossiness, ink-absorption property and printing density, excellent in coloring property, and has good surface strength. Another object of the present invention is to provide an ink-jet recording material, in particular, even when a pigment ink is used,-that has a sufficient ink-absorption property, no unevenness in glossiness at the printed portion and excellent in scuffing resistance.